Eight Months in Kirikiri: One #EndSARS Protester’s Story of Arrest and Survival

In October 2020, Mbah Nicholas Ugochukwu was living in Ojo, Lagos, running a barbershop while building other businesses. When the #EndSARS protests began, he joined them to stand up for the rights of Nigerians, having himself experienced harassment at the hands of SARS officers. Nine days after one of the protests, he was arrested and sent to prison, where he would remain for eight months for a crime he did not commit. Six years later, Nicholas is still trying to rebuild his life after losing his business, his home and his sense of security. This is his story, as told to Babatunde.

A peaceful protest and a night that changed everything

At the time, Nicholas was living in Ojo, Lagos State. On October 20, 2020, a protest was held in Ojo and ended peacefully, with no fighting and no destruction of property. Later that day, around 7 p.m., he and others heard about what had happened at the Lekki tollgate.

Nine days later, on October 29, 2020, Nicholas went to open his barbershop. He needed to visit the bank to obtain official documents for an online business he wanted to start, so he left the shop half-closed after opening for the day. After finishing at the bank, he stepped outside and waited for a keke (tricycle) to take him back to his shop.

Suddenly, a Hilux van stopped in front of him. Before he could say anything, five men stepped out. One of them shouted that they recognised him and knew he was among the people who had participated in the protests. Before he could react, they pounced on him and began dragging him away. By then, he was already weak from the beating. They collected everything he had on him, threw him into the back of the car and drove off to Ojo Police Station.

Detention at Ojo Police Station

When they arrived, the men told the police officers that Nicholas was one of the coordinators of the #EndSARS protests. At the mention of this, the officers immediately started beating him before locking him up. He asked to make a phone call so he could inform his family and friends of his whereabouts, but they refused. Even when he could hear his phone ringing and see messages coming in, they would not give it to him. He spent two days at the station without being allowed to eat or contact anybody.

Inside the cell, he met two other men. One of them said he was a tricycle driver who had been arrested while picking up passengers. After two days, the officers brought them outside and told them to write statements. They wanted statements that would implicate them. Nicholas refused because he did not understand why he had been arrested in the first place, and he insisted that he wanted to make a phone call instead. Eventually, one of the officers wrote a statement on his behalf.

That same day, some policemen arrived in a minibus and took them to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Panti. The officers from Ojo handed over everything they had collected from Nicholas to the officers there before throwing him into a cell.

At Panti: beatings and denied medication

The beating Nicholas received at Panti was the worst of his life. A few weeks before his arrest, he had undergone surgery for haemorrhoids and was still recovering. The beatings made his recovery even more difficult. He had joined the protests despite his health condition because he wanted to defend the country and the rights of its citizens. He had also experienced terrible treatment at the hands of SARS officers because of the way he dressed. At the time, he was trying to pursue a music career and wore dreadlocks, a hairstyle that had caused him several arrests.

In the Panti cell, his condition continued to deteriorate. He had not fully recovered from the surgery and had been beaten repeatedly. He appealed to the officers to let him take the injections and medication he needed to recover, but they refused.

Charged with armed robbery, arson and rioting

Nicholas spent six days in the cell at Panti with other detainees. On the sixth day, they were taken to the Yaba Magistrate Court. The magistrate joined him and the tricycle driver he had met at Ojo Police Station as co-defendants. They were charged with armed robbery, arson and rioting.

The magistrate asked whether they understood the charges. Nicholas raised his hand and said he did not understand them. He did not even know why he had been brought before the court. The court clerk read the charges again and asked if he understood. He maintained that he did not. He explained that the police had not told him what crime he had committed when they arrested him, that nobody had informed him he would be brought to court on those charges, and that he did not have a lawyer.

After that, they handcuffed the two of them, took them back to the vehicle and drove them to Panti. By then, Nicholas’s girlfriend knew he was being held there. She later told him she had seen his circulating online when they were taken to court. People were already protesting against his arrest and demanding his release.

Early the following morning, at about 2 a.m., the officers brought them out. There were about 90 men and a woman. They packed them into a bus and drove them to Kirikiri Maximum Correctional Centre in Apapa. The journey was extremely uncomfortable, and Nicholas was in terrible pain. Almost everyone on the bus was coughing.

Life inside Kirikiri

Life in prison was difficult from the moment Nicholas arrived. He was already injured, his health was deteriorating, and he was not receiving the medical attention he needed. The conditions in the cell were terrible. There was no proper medical treatment, and the only food available to them was dry garri. He was struggling physically and mentally.

When people arrived at the prison, they were welcomed as “visitors”. The officials would read the rules to them and explain that the laws governing life inside the prison were different from those governing the outside world. The level of control was extreme: if you laughed, you had to explain why you were laughing; if you farted, you had to explain why you had done it. Nicholas did not understand most of what was happening around him.

Nobody was allowed to visit him during this period. When his family brought food, the prison officials would collect it, take some for themselves and give him what remained. He only found out later that this was happening.

On his way back from court, some inmates assaulted him because they had seen his girlfriend give him money. They beat him to collect it. Even while he was in prison, people knew about his case. Whenever other inmates returned from court, they would ask who he was because his face had become familiar around the court premises. People were demanding his release.

The five days in Angola

The entire experience is difficult for Nicholas to discuss because he has not healed from it. There are things he cannot share. Even talking about some of them now makes him uncomfortable and brings back painful memories.

One experience that continues to torment him happened at Kirikiri. There is a place in the prison called Angola, where new arrivals are taken when they first get there and made to stay for five days. You remain in darkness throughout that period. What makes it worse is that you are beaten mercilessly every day. As Nicholas describes it, imagine being flogged from every direction in a dark room where you cannot even see who is beating you. They beat you until you collapse, then leave you alone for the rest of the day. Those five days were hell for him.

Afterwards, you are taken to meet the people in charge of the prison. They assess your financial capacity and start demanding money from you. They first pay prison officials to secure their position over you, then they make financial demands on you to recover what they have spent. If you refuse to keep paying, or they cannot recover what they believe you owe them, they make life difficult for you. They also took a share of whatever Nicholas’s family brought for him.

There were churches and mosques inside the prison, so Nicholas started attending church. He had to pay money to be allowed out of the cell to attend the service. That was how he tried to keep himself sane. He had been damaged physically and mentally, and he needed something to hold on to.

Missed court appearances and a change of charges

While he was in prison, Nicholas’s court appearances kept being missed. He believed this was because the authorities did not want his face to appear in court. People were already protesting and demanding his release, and he felt they wanted to keep him away from public attention.

Eventually, his family got a lawyer who took his case seriously. He was the first person Nicholas was allowed to see in prison after he had spent months there. By then, the protests calling for his release were becoming more intense. Eventually, he was taken to court. The prison officials seemed unhappy with the way he looked in public. He had several bodily injuries, was weak and could barely walk. His condition almost caused an issue in court, so he was taken back to prison that day.

Later, he learnt that the prosecution had changed the charges against him. The original charges of armed robbery, arson and rioting were changed to unlawful gathering. After two months of going back and forth, his lawyer informed him that the case had been dismissed. He was finally free, but the experience had already taken so much from him.

Life after prison

When Nicholas got out, his friends and family tried to help him recover mentally. They would spend time with him, engage him in conversations and try to cheer him up. But he knew he had been damaged. One day, his friends took him out and bought him a drink, but he did not even touch it. He had completely zoned out. They noticed what was happening and left him alone to process whatever he was going through. He wanted to be by himself and rest. There was so much going through his mind.

He had lost everything, including his bank accounts, apartment, barbershop and other businesses he had invested in. Fortunately, an X account had been created to campaign for his release while he was in prison. Through that account, he met someone who gave him money to help him get back on his feet.

He could no longer stay in Lagos. The trauma was too much to bear. Every time he walked along the streets, he was reminded of what he had gone through. He eventually relocated to Rivers State, where he is trying to rebuild his life, but it is still difficult, even six years later. Some experiences never leave you. There are days when he has no motivation to do anything. As he puts it, this country took a lot from him. He is now learning to drive trucks so he can gain the experience required for driving jobs. It is a long road, but he does not have a choice. He has to find a way to move forward.

Six years later: no accountability

One of the things that hurts Nicholas most is that there has been no compensation, no apology and no accountability for what was done to him. It makes him feel that anybody can do anything in this country and get away with it. That is one of the reasons he believes insecurity and corruption continue to grow.

He testified before the panel set up to investigate the events surrounding the #EndSARS protests. He told them everything he went through, but nothing has been done for him. Every day, he is reminded that he paid a heavy price for standing up for his rights and those of other Nigerians. It was hell.